The Deck Watch Party: Dana Chisholm (Jack of Diamonds, Washington, D.C) | Forensic Files

Hi Crime Junkies. And I know you're probably not used to seeing my face. I always get told it's a little trippy for
people the first time they see the disembodied voice that they know so well actually come out of a real life human.
And that's because I don't always make video podcasts, but when I do, you know it's going to be good. Like today. Now,
millions of you already listen to my weekly true crime podcast Crime Junkie, which is part of my company Audiochuck
with a network of a dozen other shows. We are your one-stop shop for the most trusted, responsible, compelling,
mission-driven true crime content. And one of those podcasts is my other weekly show, The Deck. The Deck is super
special to me. It was inspired by my time serving on the board of my local Crime Stoppers. I came across this deck
of playing cards with cold cases on them. And I found out that this was actually an initiative that law
enforcement agencies across the country were utilizing to try and breathe new life into cold cases. They would pass
these out in prisons and hope that they would get in the hands of the right people who might have information. So,
I took that concept and kind of ran with it. Every week we now tell you the stories behind the cards, hoping that
information reaches the right ears now. And you know, now maybe the right eyes. Now, the reason I'm doing this episode
now as a video is because I mean, there's something about this week's card that I couldn't let go of. I
mean, I needed to know that I did everything in my power to make sure as many people as possible heard this story
because in the six and a half years that I've been telling victim stories and the
lifetime that I've been consuming them, few stories have haunted me the way that
this one has. It's one of those cases that have been living in my head like on repeat. One where the killer was so
bold, so confident that police would never catch him that he taunted them. And for nearly 30 years he's been able
to get away with it. But I think that's coming to an end. Because even though it seems like he
tried to do everything he could to erase himself from the crime scene and the victim's life,
it looks like he didn't cover all of his tracks. And he may have left something behind
that could finally give him away. Our card this week is Dana Chisholm, the Jack of Diamonds from Washington, D.C.
I'm Ashley Flowers and this is The Deck. On Monday, February 27th, 1995, over 400
miles away from D.C. in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the landline at the Chisholm residence rang out in the middle of the
night. It woke up Johnny and Joe Gary from a deep sleep. And in his half-awake state, Johnny clocked the time, close to
1:30 a.m. And for where they lived in the South, everyone knew you didn't dare make a call past suppertime, unless of
course it was an emergency. Groggy and dazed, Joe Gary was the one to answer the phone, but the person on the other
end spoke loud enough for Johnny to hear. And it was a man introducing himself as Detective Lewis Douglas with
the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. And to their utter shock, the detective said that their
25-year-old daughter, Dana, was in jail. The detective explained that they had this sting operation at the Omni Hotel
there in D.C. and Dana was one of the women that they'd arrested that night for charges related to sex work. Now,
that didn't sound like their daughter at all. I mean, Dana had an office job in the city. The only time she'd ever
really been in trouble was with her parents right after high school. I mean, she started hanging out with the wrong
crowd. She got mixed up in drugs for a minute, but that was years in the past. And at no time had there ever been any
arrests for sex work. But more than what this detective was saying, Johnny said that the way that this guy talked, his
attitude, his energy were just off. Here's retired Detective Jim Trainum. He remembers the details of Dana's case
well from his time reviewing cold cases at MPD. Mr. Chisholm talked about how he kind of
felt like the phone call itself was odd because the person who was identifying himself as Douglas was seemed to be
excited. Uh he was saying that he was going to get a promotion. The man on the other end of the phone
carried on saying that Dana was going to be arraigned. She should be out at some
point during the day. And then he said something like, "Don't worry, she's fine. Just call in the morning. It's
late." And although the tone of the conversation was a bit bizarre, this guy did leave the Chisholms a phone number
that they could call later to check in, which was the one thing that made this call seem more legit. So, all they could
do at that point was wait around worrying about their daughter until they hopefully heard from her later that day.
But when the wee hours of the morning turned into more reasonable business hours and there was still no word from
Dana, Johnny decided to give that number a call. And I know what you're thinking,
it was fake. That's what I expected, but it wasn't. The line rang and it was in fact MPD. But when Johnny asked for
Detective Douglas, and then Detective Douglas got on the phone, his response instantly made Johnny's heart sink.
Well, the real Detective Douglas was actually very puzzled about what was going on. Of course, he didn't call the
family. He said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." A detective in the second district
wouldn't be one who would be doing a prostitution sting anyway. That would be a part of another totally different
unit. So, he would not be somebody who would have participated in something like this.
It was all a lie. Now, when he learned about the previous call, the real Detective Douglas asked
where Dana worked, but Johnny was hesitant to say. I mean, if this was all some sick prank, then he didn't want to
get his daughter into any trouble at the Hudson Institute, this political think tank where she was a secretary.
Johnny recalled Detective Douglas saying something along the lines of, "But don't you want to find your
daughter?" Which felt weird to Johnny cuz he didn't think he'd use any language that implied
he was necessarily looking for her, just that he was worried about Dana being detained. But desperate, Johnny ended up
giving Douglas his daughter's work address anyway. Now, there was no missing person's report filed or case
opened on Dana at the time, but Detective Douglas let Johnny know that he would look into it and call him back.
He didn't know what was going on. So, that's when he decided that he would just go by the house where she lived and
check on her, see what's happening. When he got there and there was no answer, that's when he left his card. Douglas
never did call Johnny back to let him know that he didn't have any luck making contact with Dana. He might have just
been waiting to hear something back from her or may have even assumed this was all a bunch of nothing. I mean, after
all, the house he went to was in a very nice neighborhood, the kind of neighborhood where it's easy to believe
that bad things don't happen. We spoke to retired MPD Captain Michael Farrish and here's what he said.
Argyle Terrace was more of upscale. They call that the Gold Coast. In fact, the address we were at, if you went through
the backyard and hopped a big old fence, you were on an estate owned by the Rockefeller family.
So, I guess you're kind of getting the idea of what kind of neighborhood it was. What Captain Farrish referred to
there, the Gold Coast, is the designated name for an enclave in the northwest corner of D.C. for black professionals
and intellectuals, according to the New York Times. And Farrish used to patrol that area, so
he can speak to the crime rates or rather lack thereof. Now, remember, this was 1995. Cell
phones weren't at all common yet. So, when Johnny never heard back from Detective Douglas, he decided that he
would just call Dana's employer himself to try and find out what was going on. Maybe this was all some huge
misunderstanding and she was at the office working as she should be on a Monday. But a call to her office just
made Johnny more concerned. He recalled that her boss was rude, stating that Dana hadn't shown up for work that
morning, and then he was quick to hang up on him. Now, it seems like Dana may have had a history of showing up late,
even skipping every so often. So, perhaps the response was just out of frustration. I don't know, but annoyed
by this guy's apparent apathy, Johnny ended up calling back and this time he spoke to one of Dana's female coworkers,
her friend who spoke respectfully. But she said the same thing. Nope, Dana hadn't shown up and she never called in
to tell anyone she'd be out that day. Though people at work seemed to be letting her absence slide, there was at
least one person in D.C. who was worried enough about Dana to dig a little deeper.
And that was her landlord. She and her teenage son actually shared a home with Dana. They lived upstairs while Dana had
the entire basement floor to herself with her own separate entrance. And the landlord was the one to find the
business card that Detective Douglas left. Detective cards don't just like show up
every day. So, figuring something was wrong, she called him and learned that no one had been able to get in touch
with Dana. This really bothered her cuz Dana's car was right there in the driveway. So, she decided to do a little
investigating of her own after she hung up. First, she went to check and see if Dana would open the basement door. Maybe
she hadn't heard when Detective Douglas knocked earlier. But after getting no response, her
landlord decided to enter the basement area using her own key. And that's when it became clear why no
one had heard from Dana. Back in South Carolina, about 24 hours after they had received that odd call in
the dead of the night, the Chisholms' phone startled them awake once again. This time it was dispatch asking them to
go to their front door where two county deputies were waiting for them. Johnny opened the door and one of them handed
him a number for the DC police. When he called, that's when they were finally told the horrific news that
their daughter Dana had been murdered. The Chisholms never went to DC. They still haven't been to this day. It was
just too much for them to bear. Instead, they had a family member who was already living in the area confirm
their daughter's identity on their behalf. Not having to make the identification
was a blessing because what police had found at the scene was disturbing. Dana was located in the hallway. She was
nude and a cord had been wrapped around her neck and was sitting up against the bedroom door with the cord wrapped
around the handle of the door with her arms crossed in front of her. Dana had been strangled with a piece of phone
cord that had been cut. Part of it was still laying on top of her bed and detectives also observed these ligature
marks where her hands or wrists had been tied up at some point. Having viewed photographs of the scene,
it seemed to be selectively ransacked. It wasn't like a lot of your typical burglary scenes that I used to work
where they were just trying to find anything that they could. It's like this person knew what they were looking for
and that they were going into specific areas. Police believe the killer did take
something with them that day. But he also left something behind, an ominous message written on the calendar
in the hallway. It referred to Dana in kind of a vulgar manner. But then it says something
really interesting, which is "I'll be back MPD." Solving the toughest criminal investigations sometimes requires a game
of risk. With the coldest of cases, investigators sometimes have no choice but to show their hand in hopes of
getting killers to fold. The Deck takes true crime listeners through a deck of playing cards that is unlike any other.
Are you ready to be dealt in? Follow The Deck wherever you listen to podcasts to
make sure you don't miss out on a single episode. Then Sergeant Michael Ferrish responded
to the crime scene that day that this all broke. In his 30s at the time working in the so-called murder capital,
he'd seen a lot of terrible things. But this sexually explicit note ending in "I'll be back MPD" is permanently
imprinted in his mind. As is the fear that he felt when reading that final line.
Could that have meant "I'll be back" in other words, there are more victims coming. Foreboding warning
that there were going to be more female victims. Is this the first one we've identified and perhaps the strangest
cases that we haven't had enough indications to say are linked? Or is this the first
one of somebody who's a real wacko and goes, "You know what? This is my first but not my last."
The department was clearly dealing with a killer who liked to play games. Not only had he left a pointed message for
police, but the medical examiner had Dana's likely time of death at sometime late on the evening of February 26th,
meaning that she was probably deceased hours before her poor parents received that mysterious call from a fake
Detective Douglas. Now, they know that the killer didn't make the call from Dana's house because
they were eventually able to trace it to a payphone right by an area on Interstate 395 where you could hop on to
go to Virginia or Maryland. But they do think that this killer probably stuck around her apartment after she was dead.
Dana's landlord remembered hearing someone taking a long shower at some point the evening of Dana's murder. At
the time, she probably thought it was Dana. But she did likely suspect even then that Dana wasn't alone in her
basement apartment. And that's because at around 6:00 p.m., she'd noticed an unknown car parked in the driveway right
behind Dana's. Though, it's important to note she couldn't remember any specific details
about the car. Not thinking anything was out of the norm at the time. I mean, she
hadn't really been paying much attention. The landlord and her teenage son were home around the time Dana was
thought to have been killed. But they didn't hear anything concerning. No loud arguments, no sounds of a struggle or
screams for help. But it was a pretty big house after all. Now, it should have been easy to figure out who Dana was
with that night. Detectives discovered that she kept a detailed datebook and a diary that gave a pretty good
play-by-play of her life. She also had a caller ID box. So, for 1995, I mean, police had everything they could
possibly want to pinpoint who she was with or who she'd at least been in contact with leading up to her death.
Except they didn't. She had a landline. So, when somebody would call, the call number would come
up on the caller ID box. And you could delete that. But in this case, the person took the actual box with them. It
seems most likely that the killer took the box with them because their number would have shown up in the recent call
list, possibly the most recent. You see, detectives spoke to one of Dana's friends who'd been hanging out with her
at Dana's place on Saturday afternoon before leaving at around 5:30. And she had observed something very telling.
There was a friend of hers who was over there Saturday afternoon and they were planning to go out but then Dana changed
her mind. And during the time that she was over there, Dana kept getting these phone calls that
when she checked the caller ID, she just didn't bother answering. Now, along with the caller ID box, there
were at least three other items known to be missing. The first being Dana's apartment key. Seemingly, it had been
taken with her killer, probably used to lock the door on his way out. But the weird thing is the killer didn't keep
it. And of all people, it was a reporter who found it as they were filming news coverage outside of her place. He finds
the key in the street. He calls the detectives over to comment on it and sure enough, it's the key to Dana's
apartment. It's interesting that the killer felt the need to lock the door after he left. From my understanding, it
was taken off a key ring. And so, why did he do that? Why did he feel the need to take it off the key
ring? And of course, once I didn't need it anymore, I would have gotten rid of it as soon as possible because that's
would be something to link me to her. And I wouldn't want that to be found in my possession.
The other two items that appeared to be missing were never found, her most recent datebook and diary. Which makes
Detective Trainum think that someone was trying to erase any sign that they had ever existed in Dana's life.
But there was something left behind that couldn't be erased. Her autopsy revealed
that Dana was 4 weeks pregnant. Johnny told our reporter Madison that her family hadn't known about the pregnancy,
but in hindsight, he did remember something. Dana had recently called him to let him know that she would be making
a trip home soon. She said she had something to tell him. You could theorize that she had just
learned that she may be pregnant. Maybe it hasn't been confirmed yet. But she's just learned this and she told
this person that. One of the things that in reading information about the interviews, she would use a condom.
Maybe with this person she didn't. Maybe she developed, you know, some kind of more personal relationship with him and
didn't use a condom and became pregnant. We really don't know. These things are all theories that you really can't prove
one way or the other. We know Dana did know about the pregnancy because about a week before
her murder, she confided the news to a coworker. It came up because this friend or
coworker caught Dana crying at the office. So, it seemed like this revelation was not something Dana had
planned or was happy about, at least not in that vulnerable moment. We don't know
for sure if Dana told this friend or anyone else who she thought the father may have been.
Both Trainum and Ferrish didn't think that friend or anyone else detectives spoke to had ever offered up a possible
name, at least that they could remember. And you would think that a comment like
that would stand out enough to leave a lasting impression. We asked present-day DC police Commander Kevin Kentish if
Dana had given her friend a name of a potential guy. But he said he couldn't comment as obviously this person would
be considered a suspect. Finding out who Dana was with before she died was police's number one priority. And lucky
for them, Dana herself might have left them their first list of potential suspects.
Hi, Crime Junkie. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And every week we cover
all kinds of true crime cases from the most infamous to mysterious deaths and disappearances, even cases you've never
heard anywhere else. If you can't get enough of all things true crime, well, you've found your people. And if you're
like us and want to make a real impact in these cases, you're definitely a crime junkie. So, join us every Monday
for new episodes. You can find Crime Junkie wherever you get your podcasts. Dana had been keeping track of the
various men she'd been seeing. Inside her apartment, police found notes that included some names and phone numbers.
What her job didn't know, what her parents didn't know, what a lot of her close friends did was that one she had a
lot of boyfriends but two she was working part-time as an escort. She was advertising for dates and back then you
didn't have the internet of course and so we would advertise like the local weekly newspaper you know people looking
for a companionship or whatnot. There was like some phone lines that you would call and exchange information. And from
my understanding from what her friends were saying about her and from what some of her clients that were interviewed
were saying about her was that she was asking for money directly. Typically if she got involved with a client they had
sex she would maybe drop a hint that she could use money and they would often times pay her. I think it's important to
clear something up. There are some things I found online that seemed to imply that what she was doing was
extortion but both Trainum and Farish said none of the men who were interviewed described it as being
blatant or malicious. Farish said it was more like Dana was making suggestions. It was the let me play the sympathy card
heartstring or don't be a dummy. Whatever way you want to put it uh yeah I don't I don't it isn't like she came
out and said look give me some cash or I'm calling the old lady. Uh we had no indication of that it was
just you know there were men that did stupid things and you know no pun intended
basically got caught with their pants down and you know had the monetary wherewithal to say you know
what it's easier to give her $100 and roll out of here pretend like this never happened.
And I think that was more along the lines of what would occur. It was the quote unquote my roommate suddenly moved
out sob story type thing. One of the interesting things about her and this is actually what one of her friends warned
her about she would become emotionally involved with some of these folks and she would
begin to see them as friends. So that probably did play a part in her demise and I hate to phrase it that way
cuz the last thing that we need to do is start victim blaming. Just because she engaged in that lifestyle does not mean
that she deserved to die. So I think we have to be careful but we also have to understand victimology is very important
because we have to understand what might have been going on around the victim's life during that time and again a bad
word but appropriate word contributed to her demise. Often times that's the only
way that you can identify uh the person who killed her by looking at that aspect
and looking at timelines and things like that. The kind of men she saw varied. Business
men flashy guys she met out at clubs some were single others were married but according to Farish there was one type
that she seemed to go for above all others. She kind of had a thing for cops. There was several cops that we
identified whether they were local or federal law enforcement had relations with her whether it was a date and sex
or just meeting somewhere and hooking up. Out of all the law enforcement that they
identified and interviewed Farish thinks at least two were cops who were working
for MPD at the time. It was one of those look you're going to come down and talk to us
or I'm going to call your house and have you come down and talk to us. Don't you think it would just be easier?
I don't care if you're stepping out on your marriage that's not my business. That's between you your conscience and
your wife not me. The ones in law enforcement that we did identify we're very confident you know
and believe me they were scrutinized we looked at them sideways so you know uh no doubt
and rest assured every effort was put into identifying who we could getting a story out of them and then
trying to pick it apart so that we didn't have egg on our face later. There was another MPD officer who wasn't
necessarily on Dana's list who may have been familiar with her though. Remember Detective Lewis Douglas?
Although he hadn't initially remembered any connection to Dana after her body was found and he came down to the
homicide office to make a statement he realized that he had actually met her before.
You see about a week or so before Dana's murder there had been some things stolen
at the Hudson Institute where she worked and Douglas was the one handling that case and he'd actually talked to Dana.
He denied any sort of contact with her beyond that. He said that when he got back to the station after her body had
been found he went through the complaint file and found her name in the file system as someone he had talked to or
someone he had taken a report from. He said that he had no memory of her until he went back and pulled that up. Dana
kept this book filled with business cards which was found during investigators search of her place.
And the theory that emerged was that her killer could have found the card that Detective Douglas would have given Dana
inside that book and then had taken it with him to the payphone that night and that's why he used the name Detective
Douglas when he called the Chisholms. And that might be true it might not but either way it didn't explain why he made
the call in the first place. Was it intended to give a reason to her parents why she wouldn't be in touch?
Maybe to try and prolong anyone realizing that Dana was dead? Or was it purely just to mess with them?
One day in March when the phone at the homicide office rang then Sergeant Michael Farish got the answer to that
question. We brought you the Deck podcast to tell the stories of cold cases each week that
need your attention. But in doing so we stumbled across a case that we couldn't possibly scratch
the surface of in a single episode. So we dug deeper to bring you a brand new limited series.
This is the Deck Investigates. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. And I'm sitting at my desk and someone
hollered hey Sarge line one. So I hit line one gas Sergeant Farish homicide and the person starts talking to me and
that's when I realized they know something about this case. I'm looking back at the detectives in
the office who are working going okay someone's just messing with me but they start talking about the case not in
particulars but more about Dana. As squad sergeant of the homicide unit at that time Farish had naturally become
kind of the talking head for Dana's case. Any updates to the media were made through him. So it made sense why this
caller would have asked for him specifically. And when I'm talking to him it's quick phone call I'm talking about
maybe a minute 90 seconds but he said enough for me to go uh this might be legit. If it ain't one of
the guys messing with me this might be legit and the voice is not familiar to me.
Uh so when he's talking he's like well you know you know how to reach out to me and
I'm like no dude I don't know how to reach out to you and I was like you know give me a name and he goes what do you
think I'm going to give you my name and I go you got to give me something I go because I'm tired of calling you sir and
dude. And I said so give me a name so I know if you call me again I'll know I'm talking to you.
And he gave me a name. Though the voice was similar to the one who called the Chisholms a bit raspy
maybe a guy in his 30s or 40s this time he didn't call himself Detective Douglas. Now this time he used
the name of a Marvel character. Now I'm not going to reveal which one because it's something that Farish
believes could be important to hold back. In fact the first time Madison called him and mentioned the nickname
she heard he was taken aback afraid that the cat was out of the bag but he wanted
you to know the Marvel part because after all of this time he thinks that there's a chance that that's what could
stand out to someone who may have information. Maybe the caller chose this specific Marvel superhero for a reason.
Because I uh was hoping that this guy would call me again. Because he called two or three times he
always asked to speak to me. Sometimes he called you know I'm working day work and he'd call on the midnight shift or
he'd call on the 3:00 to 11:00 shift but I would come in and in my mail slot be one of those little yellow or pink you
were called by and they would write down the name you were called by so and so. But we had no caller ID we couldn't do
track and trace we couldn't do any of that. So on my desk phone I had what they called an induction coil which was
basically just a suction cup. It was a suction cup with a microphone and you would put it on like the
backside of the receiver that you put up at your ear and it had a wire and it would run to an old-fashioned tape
recorder and when you went to take a call so whenever I was at my desk I would hit record on the tape deck and
pick up the phone in case it was him. Of course he never called when I was sitting at my damn desk. There was no
set schedule or anything and he would never stay on the phone he would never let me put him on hold.
I guess because he always thought that you know oh you're going to trace the phone number and I would be like dude we
can't trace the phone this is the DC Police Department. You know we're using dial phones we don't have
that kind of technology, but for whatever reason he didn't buy it. We couldn't trace those calls. It was
impossible. Believe me, we looked into it. If was there any way to trace incoming calls, the answer was flat no.
The one thing they did find out was that the incoming calls were local. Ferris said the man sounded intelligent,
not genius, but smart and in control of his emotions. This guy would never straight up say that he killed Dana, but
the insinuation was definitely there. In one of the few calls where he made contact with Ferris, he said that he
knew why Dana was murdered. Said it was because of her lifestyle, because she went out to clubs and slept with
multiple men. And he wanted Ferris to let the world know that. He wanted him to announce it to the media. So, after
seeking some advice from behavioral analysis experts at Quantico, Ferris did go public with more information on Dana.
But, he painted a picture very opposite of the one that the caller had described. I think I referred to her as
the all-American girl, the kind of, you know, the cheerleader, sang in the choir,
kind of girl you bring home to mom and dad. It seemed to work. He got a rise out of
this caller. And after a bit of a break, the man called again saying he was back
in town. And now he was willing to meet face-to-face with Ferris. All I remember is I I had a trench coat
on cuz it was raining and it was chilly. But, I was in the office, phone rang, it
was him. And he said, "If you want to meet me." And he gave me a location out in
uh I If I remember correctly, I believe it was out in Southeast DC out off Minnesota Avenue.
And he said, "Come and meet me there." And I grabbed my coat, grabbed my radio, and I ran out the door.
Uh I don't I don't even remember telling anybody else in the unit that I was headed out. I was just like, "You need
me, I'm on the radio." I drove over there. I parked the cruiser. Um you know, it was an unmarked
cruiser, but, you know, every every mope in the city knew what unmarked police cruisers look like. And I sat there in
the rain drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and looking at every car and every person that walked by
uh hoping that if he comes up on me and he goes to shoot me, at least I hope I see him coming and he doesn't come in
from an angle from a mirror that I don't see. Uh but, that's how badly I wanted to
meet this son of a uh because I I don't want to say I took it personal, but I got it sort of like, "Oh, you've
you've taunted with me. I've I really want to see the one behind this, the guy who
poked the bear and said, 'Yeah, uh you want to meet me, come and meet me.' and had me sitting in a car for God, I don't
remember how many hours I sat there uh just burning gas, sitting in the cold wet
hoping that he would show up and and if he did, I never saw him, but he would have seen
me. I honestly don't know. I I mean, I know that that that feeling you say, you know, where you feel like you're being
watched. Um I don't know. I I wouldn't say that that overcame me. There was plenty of vantage
points to see me without approaching. Hell, he could have walked right past the car, looked in the window, I
wouldn't have known it was him. You know what I mean? After about two months and three short
phone calls, this mysterious man never contacted police or the Chisholms again, at least to anyone's knowledge.
Which left that provocative message that the killer had written on Dana's wall calendar to just loom over them.
But, then it says something really interesting, which is "I'll be back, MPD." Anticipation and anxiety morphed into
relief when the killer didn't follow through on his threat. There didn't seem to be any other victims connected to
this case. And even better, they realized that his note and the warning at the end might actually include a big
clue about who their suspect could be. When you think of New England, you don't think of this.
I'm Kylie Low. I'm an investigative journalist and storyteller. Each week I share homicides and missing persons
cases from across the state of Maine and greater New England. This is my home. These stories are my passion, and this
podcast is my platform to help friends and families keep the memories of their loved ones alive long after the
attention fades. This is Dark Downeast. Trainum and Ferris both believe that this man had some type of relationship
with Dana. This wasn't some random stranger. What he wrote, the fact that he called her parents and told them that
she was busted for sex work, even the stuff he told Ferris to say to the media, it all led to the same possible
conclusion. I think it can be argued that one, he's very angry with her. Uh he is involved in in some kind of
relationship with her. He's very angry. He wants her degraded. Uh probably cuz he she hurt him or whatever along that
line or maybe she wasn't monogamous like he wanted her to be, but he definitely want wanted the world to know, wanted
her parents to know that he considered her to be an awful person. The second clue was an even bigger one.
You see, both Trainum and Ferris said that around this time, those outside of law enforcement weren't likely referring
to the force as MPD. It was much more common to simply say DC police. My tentative theory at this point would be
that I mean, this would be somebody who she had established a relationship with relatively soon before
her death. That he was extremely possessive. He had some sort of knowledge or contact
with uh police officers. So, he did either worked in law enforcement, had a law enforcement source, or maybe was a
criminal himself who had enough information about that. Though Ferris feels fairly confident
that the killer wasn't with MPD at the time, he, like Trainum, is pretty sure that there's at least some link to local
police. Somebody maybe had been a cop and got fired for whatever reason. You know, they
could have had dirty P. You know, got fired cuz they smoked a joint or some crap. Who knows?
But, there there could have been an axe to grind towards the department, too. Along with the use of the acronym MPD,
Trainum also points out the way that the killer talked to Dana's parents the night that he called them, his lingo and
the information he gave. Uh he didn't really know that much about investigations, but he knew enough about
prostitution and things. He knew enough about how police booking works, things along that line.
You want to know the thing that makes me the most convinced? Where that call to Johnny was made from.
Remember, it was traced to a payphone by the Interstate. And they were only able
to do that because long-distance calls were recorded by the phone providers back then. And a call from DC to her
parents down South Carolina would have been long-distance. I think he knew that. And let me tell
you why. Some say that he might have picked that location because it was right where you
could hop on the highway to leave the district, you know, high-tail it out of town. And sure, maybe that's it.
But, maybe it's deeper than that. Maybe it was another message. There's a place called Triple Nickel,
which was 555 Fourth Street Northwest. That was US Attorney's Office. Two blocks south of that was police
headquarters. Two blocks north of that was a carryout on a corner at Fourth and Massachusetts Avenue. And then like a
block block and a half north of that was what we called court parking. Where back at
that time, if you had a if you were an officer, there was a parking lot that you had a court parking permit, you put
it in your windshield, you could park your car on this lot to go and attend court. Because next
door to police headquarters was the DC Superior Court, which is where most of the trials occurred. So,
the phone call to the Chisholms, we don't know if it was intentionally made from that location,
but it was made between court parking, US Attorney's Office, and then just below that, headquarters and court. So,
it was a it was a location very well known to any cop that did any work and ever
had to go to US Attorney's Court or headquarters. That carryout at that corner where the payphones were also was a
place where a lot of cops would stop and get a cup of coffee. So, was this a coincidence? Was it
possible the killer was one of their own? Or was it someone who hated law enforcement and made the calculated move
to stick their metaphorical middle finger up at investigators like, "I just killed a woman and now I'm right
outside, practically on your doorstep, calling her parents, pretending to be one of you.
The list of men who were officially connected to law enforcement in Dana's case is limited. If you remember, at
least two who were working for MPD who were known to have engaged with Dana socially, maybe about a handful of
others who worked for different law enforcement agencies who she had seen in some form or fashion, and Detective
Lewis Douglas. Now, that's not to say that there weren't more because, again, her most
recent datebook and diary and caller ID were taken intentionally trying to erase
some record of someone. But, of the people who we do know about, someone stands out to Johnny Chisholm.
He has always wondered if there was more to this Detective Lewis Douglas story. For one, he told our reporter Madison
that the one time they spoke, Douglas asked him about finding his daughter before Johnny even clarified what
exactly was going on. Two, he thinks it's possible that the voice he heard on the phone that fateful night sounded
similar enough to have potentially been the real Detective Douglas he called later that morning.
And three, he found it odd that Detective Douglas never did call him back, never explained why his name had
gotten mixed up in all of this. You could say Johnny just thought it was all a little sketchy.
Had the killer really just found Douglas's card and decided to roll with it? That's actually what both retired
Detective Trainum and retired Captain Ferris think. Of course, that thought was in our head,
you know, did Lewis meet her when he was down on a call, you know, working, give
her his card and said, "Hey, let's hook up." And did she maybe say, "Yeah." We you know, we had to flush that out
and we did and and, you know, long story short, we we were able to clear Lewis Douglas from any
any kind of involvement in this. Ferris also had an explanation for some of Johnny's concerns.
At the time, Douglas was young, he was inexperienced in his role, maybe even a little reserved. The seemingly odd
interaction Johnny had could just be blamed on the fact that Douglas was I mean, shocked that his name had been
dragged into something so brutal. Present-day DC Police Commander Kevin Kentish also confirmed this for our
reporter Madison. Yes, Douglas was looked into, but nothing led them to believe that he could have been the
killer. He was not considered a suspect. And that wasn't just true of Douglas. Police looked at a lot of people, and
each of them were getting eliminated as suspects one by one, either through alibis, voice stress tests, or the like.
They did focus on a lot on a couple of associates, uh both personal and professional of Dana's,
mostly ones that had either a violent background, a criminal background, may have been involved in some sort of
domestic issues on their own. I don't have any specific numbers as to how many people they questioned or looked at or
whatever, but there were a lot. I mean, I would say dozens, and some they looked
at much more carefully than others. Um some they could rule out pretty quickly because they had good alibis that they
were able to cooperate. Others, especially if they weren't cooperative or or whatever, it took longer
to rule them out. Um and like I said, I just don't know how many they ruled out, you know, based on
voice stress analysis test. Back then, you would investigate by polygraph. And you would use that to make decisions
as to who you would follow up on and who you wouldn't, not recognizing a number of false
positives and of false negatives. Um you know, the best polygraph examiners, you
know, first off, I don't believe in the polygraph for many reasons, but I have worked with polygraph examiners, and the
best ones that I have worked with, the main value of the polygraph is the mystique behind it. And it's the
pre-polygraph interview where the person is so freaked out that they're going to
be caught on the polygraph that they give more information that that that they intended to. But the best polygraph
examiners I ever worked with would always tell me that you always follow the evidence, you don't follow the
polygraph. Don't follow the polygraph. Follow the evidence. Well, lucky for MPD, it seems like they
should have some of that to work with. Our world is full of natural wonders, but what happens when human predators
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get your podcasts. During Dana's autopsy in 1995, a full examination was done along with a sexual
assault kit. From her autopsy, there was no uh indication of semen. Uh I I don't recall any being found
on the bed uh because there was evidence they had been in the bed prior to where she was ultimately found
near a hallway door, a closet door uh outside the bedroom. But that doesn't mean there wasn't any
sexual activity involved in that. There are some question as to whether or not there was semen on another article
within the house. According to Trainum, that other article might be a towel. Well, we know that they wanted to test
it back in 1995. However, during that time period, there was no CODIS database, and so no laboratory
would just test an item just to get a DNA sample if they had nothing to compare it to. You needed to submit
somebody's DNA uh to the laboratory so that they could do a one-on-one comparison.
Now, I do know that they did take um you know, saliva samples, you know, DNAs you know, from several people, but I
don't have any information as to if those were submitted and compared to the towel.
Ferris also remembers some folks offering up saliva samples voluntarily, but at least while he was on the force,
resources kept detectives from being able to send anything off. DNA work at that time, we had to farm
out uh to Bode Lab, and it was expensive. I mean, for like two items to be tested was like five grand.
And you got to remember, this is a time when the city was broke, and we were sometimes putting tires on police cars
out of our own pocket because the police department couldn't afford to buy tires
for the freaking cars. I mean, it was bad. You know, we had rotary phones at the
homicide unit, no caller ID, no voicemail, no it it was bad. Financially, it was bad.
So, DNA testing was very specific, and it wasn't a fishing expedition to see, "Oh, well, let's do DNA testing to see
if something's in CODIS that'll match." Because you got to remember, I I I don't
even know if they called it CODIS yet. It was in its infancy. I mean, we understood the concept of DNA, but we
also understood how financially prohibitive it was for our department to have DNA work done.
Basically, back then, what they did is they would look at DNA as more of a way to prove that the suspect you already
had did it, not a way to like go looking for suspects. And the problem they had was truly that they had no idea who
killed Dana. And I know that sounds like a party line, but we even asked Ferris straight-up, you know, like, "Okay, no
official suspects, we get it, but every detective has a favorite, even if it's just a hunch.
Who's your hunch? Who was your favorite?" There's no one that I sat there and I went, "You know, I think this someone is
good for it." I've been in homicide around long enough to know 90 to 95% of the cases that are investigated within a
reasonable amount of time, most of the time the detectives got a pretty good idea who did the murder. It's one thing
to know, and it's another thing to take to court and prove, and they just lacked
that proof. In Dana's case, honestly, my answer is no. Without even an old-fashioned Colombo
hunch to follow, they needed what DNA has now become. It's not as cost-prohibitive nowadays, and with the
growth of CODIS, the database over the 30 years, and now you throw in the genetic DNA work that
can be done, it's only going to get better cuz that's only going to improve and lead to more suspects being
identified. Starting at around the year 2000, during the entire last decade of his career
with MPD, Trainum was working to identify cold cases within the department that had the potential of
being solved using DNA evidence. I mean, that's the whole reason he had familiarized himself with Dana's case in
the first place. It was part of this bigger review. He was flagging the ones with the best chances, and within those
cases, identifying which items would be sent off first. But here's the thing, when it came to
the forensic evidence in Dana's case, they hadn't been able to move forward with testing any items, not because they
didn't want to, but because they couldn't find them. We have a very poor track record, uh
especially back then, of keeping evidence. It's often times misplaced. What was going on during the time right before I
left was they were actually moving the warehouse. And so, evidence that we could not find
earlier they were now going through every piece of evidence and barcoding and putting it
into a database. And that's why this case was listed on my spreadsheet as one where we hadn't found the
evidence yet, but the information about uh property control numbers were there. And so, if they were able to find the
evidence in the future During his review, Trainum says that there were several items of interest
that stood out right away. But, at that point they were stuck. They had to just wait and see if they would
be able to locate any of those things during the move. But, there were several things that I
mean could be tested. Um not only the towel, but also the ligatures. Um you know, with the phone cord, the
one around her neck. We did not know this back then, but of course if somebody grabs a cord and they pull it,
they tighten it, their skin cells are going to go off on the cord and you can often times get
a DNA profile from that. And there's something else. There's like over 100 fingerprints found in her
house. Back then, you needed to have somebody's prints to compare to one to one. I never
saw any information about any fingerprint comparisons that were done with any of these suspects. But, now
they have automatic fingerprint comparison system where you can take prints that are are of sufficient
quality, run them through this database, and it will kick back with like the top
10, top 20, top 30. You then have to do a manual comparison. That would be something that I would have done. Go
back and re-evaluate these prints. Put them through the system. See what kicks back.
There was also special attention given to the bathroom in Dana's apartment because of what her landlady had heard.
That long shower it's believed that the killer took that night. I think that's why
uh that much attention was paid on the whole uh shower, you know, the drain, and the trap, and all that.
It's because that information she shared while we were still on the scene. They even pulled the drain in the tub.
You know, for hairs or anything else. What about Dana being pregnant? What I wondered more than anything else was
couldn't some DNA samples have been obtained from the fetal tissue to determine paternity?
The short answer is yes, it could. Yes, there would have been a a a sample tissue sample taken by the medical
examiner during autopsy. This is where things get a little frustrating. When Trainum eventually retired in 2010,
to his knowledge, they had yet to locate the potential forensic evidence in Dana's case. Now, it's worth noting that
Farish wasn't on the same cold case review team as Trainum. Towards the end of his career, he was
more focused on current homicide, so he wasn't really privy to the notion that anything in Dana's case had perhaps even
gone missing. But, Farish did say that when he retired 2 years after Trainum in 2012, as far as he was aware, still
nothing in Dana's case had been sent off for testing. So, we needed to go directly to the
source, the authority currently in charge to find out what's been going on here.
But, it remains unclear. Because when Madison spoke with Commander Kentish during an informal
half-hour phone conversation, he wouldn't get into specifics. Are you able to say anything about, you
know, if items are still around that can be tested cuz I think Trainum was unsure
if you know, I think during that time evidence was kind of being moved from a warehouse. So, it was unsure if these if
these items were even still existed. No, so um the evidence has been preserved. Um there's no fear of that.
Um I can't speak to the exact testing of evidence, but I can say that we have made um some progress in that case. Um
and uh it is being investigated right now. It is not a cold case as far as on the shelf. Uh somebody's actively
investigating that case. Uh we have made some uh some good progress in that case that unfortunately
is because it's open I can't talk about. Can you say if the progress is like related to testing evidence or like
potential evidence? Play that that's played a role in um us making the progress.
Okay. Okay, that's great to hear. Okay, so it's safe to say, you know, for the story we we can say that evidence in
this case that you know, forensic evidence in this case has been preserved, does exist, and
that um you know, testing of those items has led to progress. Yes, that is correct. Can you say um the
last time one or more of those items was tested? Like was it I can't recently? No comment on that
one. I really want to hold on to what he said about making good progress. But, because
I don't know what testing he's referring to or how recently it may have happened,
maybe it's false hope. Commander Kentish did specifically confirm that some sort
of fetal tissue evidence does exist, and that attempting to figure out who the father was using forensic technology is
something detectives are looking into. Now, I'm going to say the obvious thing real quick, like getting Dana pregnant
does not automatically mean that this person is also her killer. But, Johnny Chisholm told our reporting
team that he feels like her pregnancy has to be connected to her death in some way.
Police have to find the biological father. They have to find the person who tried so hard to wipe his existence from
Dana's place and her life, whether they're the same person or not. Her friends might know this person and
they might not be aware that he's never been identified or never been interviewed. I think it would be very
helpful if there was anybody that they knew that Dana was involved with in any way, shape, or form that they didn't
tell the police about or maybe they learned about later after they were interviewed by the
police. Or even if they did tell the police back then that they for whatever reason they still have a strong
suspicion or they even have a stronger suspicion now with the passage of time cuz things have happened. Just because
police ruled out somebody back then doesn't mean that new information might lead them right back. So, just as an
example, uh yeah, there was this guy who was seeing Dana. He seemed like he was really nice. Oh,
but few years later he gets locked up for finally assaulting his girlfriend and some other stuff.
You know, maybe you want to call back and say, "Hey, you might want to recheck this guy just in case."
That was Trainum's call out. And mine is to MPD. I don't know if funding is still an
issue, but if it is, please consider applying for a grant with Season of Justice. It's a nonprofit that will pay
the private lab of your choosing to test DNA. In a few short years, they've already issued over a million dollars in
grants that have gone on to actually solve cold cases. I started that nonprofit because I believe that money
should never be the reason that a family like the Chisholms doesn't get answers.
And listen, I'm not ignorant to the fickleness of the legal system. Depending on what DNA you get and from
where, it might not be the smoking gun you need. If the DNA is matched to this person who
says that he's never been in the house, boom. That's probative. If the if the towel is in a place where
like draped on top of items that were part of the ransacking, that makes it more probative. If we learn
uh from Dana's friends or associates that every Saturday uh or every Sunday morning she does her laundry,
washes all the towels, that makes it more probative. I'll take probative. Probative is a
place to start. But, those ligatures more than anything seem like a treasure trove to me.
Pretty hard to explain away your DNA on the phone cord wrapped around her neck. Listen, I wish I could tell you more
about the testing. I wish I knew more. I bet the Chisholms wish they knew more, too.
They have been kind and patient for a long time. I know many other families I work with feel like they have to be.
Like they don't want to alienate the one line they have to the people and the agencies who are supposed to solve their
loved one's case. But, that's why it's all of our jobs to make the noise. It is unacceptable to me that it has
taken this long to do everything possible in Dana's case. There should be viable evidence. There
are available funding methods. So, there are no excuses. Dana deserves so much better.
Her family deserves better. The people of DC should be furious because they deserve better, too.
It's evident Dana's murderer wanted to degrade her. Wanted everyone to think less of her.
But, I hope he knows that we don't. Not a single person we spoke to does. Dana was kind-hearted. Someone who never
met a stranger. Her dad described her like this, "There are some people who were just put on
this earth because they were meant to serve others." And that was his Dana. Always helpful. Forever a true friend.
She was a loving young woman with a beautiful smile. Her life was full and it was valuable.
And that is how she will always be remembered. But, to Dana's murderer, it's all about to come apart for you.
People are going to know how small you are and how ugly your heart is. And Dana was so much more in 25 years
than you have ever had the potential to be. I don't know how people look at you right now.
If there's even anyone who looks at you with love or something like respect. But I'd take it in.
You're on a clock now. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Obviously, you don't feel safe.
Obviously, you think that any day the hammer could come down. And you're right, the hammer may be coming down
tomorrow. It's about time, past time for someone who knows something to come forward. Be
that call that brings the Chisholm's faith after almost 30 years with no answers.
If you are that someone, please call the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. at 202-727-9099.
Or you can remain anonymous and just type what you know to MPD's text tip line 504-11.
There is a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction in the homicide of
Dana Chisholm. The Deck is an Audiochuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn
more about The Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. And don't forget to check out our weekly
podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Watch now to talk with Ashley about Dana's case!

Dana Chisholm, Jack of Diamonds from Washington, DC was just 25 years old when she was murdered. Her killer was unlike anyone I have come across in my almost 7 years of covering cases - he was so confident police would never catch him, that he taunted them. Yet, as smart as he thought he was with this…he didn’t cover all his tracks…and left something behind that could finally bring this case to justice.

If you have any information about the murder of Dana Chisholm in February of 1995 in Washington, D.C., please contact the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099, or remain anonymous by texting your tip to MPD's Text Top Line at 50411. There is a $25,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and conviction in the homicide of Dana Chisholm.

TruthFinder is a presenting sponsor of The Deck | TruthFinder.com

You can listen to The Deck on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/thedeckpodcast

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Dana Chisholm and the investigation's chilling details, including a taunting phone call to her parents.

Key points

The Mysterious Call. The Chisholms receive a shocking call about their daughter Dana's arrest.
The Horrific Discovery. The Chisholms learn the devastating news of Dana's murder from police.
The Killer's Message. A chilling note left by the killer suggests he may strike again.
Dana's Pregnancy Revelation. Dana was found to be four weeks pregnant, a detail unknown to her family.
Dana's Secret Life. Dana was secretly working as an escort while maintaining multiple relationships.
The Caller Knows Too Much. A mysterious caller claims to know why Dana was murdered, hinting at a deeper connection.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It looks like he didn't cover all of his tracks.

Ashley Flowers hints at a breakthrough in the case.

2:10WatchJul 24, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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